docs: def gather_meta(self):
          """
          Return the meta file.
          """
          if not os.path.exists(self.paths["meta"]):
              return ""
  
          meta_dict = utils.yaml_load(self.paths["meta"])
  
          # gather the dependencies
          if meta_dict and "dependencies" in meta_dict:
              # create a simple list of each role that is a dependency
              dep_list = []
  
              for dependency in meta_dict["dependencies"]:
                  if type(dependency) is dict:
                      dep_list.append(dependency["role"])
                  else:
                      dep_list.append(dependency)
  
              # unique set of dependencies
              meta_dict["dependencies"] = list(set(dep_list))
  
              self.dependencies = meta_dict["dependencies"]
          else:
              self.dependencies = []
  
          return utils.file_to_string(self.paths["meta"])